Specific clinical and hormonal features of the non-classical form of 21-hydroxilase deficiency in the children during the first year of life detected from the results of neonatal screening

Abstract

The non-classical form of 21-hydroxilase deficiency (21-OHD) has up to now been fairly well studied only in the patients of prepubertal and pubertal age as well as in the women of reproductive age. The advent of neonatal screening for congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAD) made it possible to more frequently detect 21-OHD in the children during the first year of life. The domestic literature proposes no clinical and laboratory criteria for 21-OHD in the young children. The results of neonatal screening of 50 children presenting with elevated 17-hydroxyprogesterone (17-OHP) levels carried out in the period from 2011 to 2013 were used to form two groups of patients, one comprised of 20 children with verified 21-OHD (group 1), the other containing 30 "healthy" children showing the false-positive elevation of 21-OHD levels. All the patients underwent the comprehensive clinical and hormonal examination supplemented by the molecular-genetic analysis. The main criterion for the inclusion of children in group 1 was the presence of mutations in the CYP21 gene It was shown that determination of 21-OHD by tandem mass-spectrometry (TMS) including that in the framework of multisteroid analysis yields the most specific and accurate data in the children below one year of age; such analysis is indicated to all patients in whom the neonatal screening for congenital adrenal hyperplasia reveals the slightly elevated 17-OHP levels. The analysis for the group of patients with verified 21-OHD has demonstrated the absence of clinical and laboratory signs of adrenal insufficiency and/or hyperandrogenism in the children aged below 1 year.